''1066: The Battle for Middle Earth'' is a two-part British television documentary series. In this blend of historical drama and original source material,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

re-imagines the story of this decisive year of the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...

, not from the saddles of kings and conquerors, but through the eyes of ordinary people caught up in its events. The documentary was narrated by actor Sir

Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...

. The series focuses on the

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

village of Crowhurst, which Director Justin Hardy learned about from the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'', England's earliest surviving public record. Located between the coast and Hastings, the little village was, according to the book, "laid to waste" in 1066. In the series, it serves as the hometown for the fictional peasant soldiers Tofi, Leofric, and Ordgar, whose names are actual

Anglo-Saxon name Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements, by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from ', for "noble", and ', for "counsel". However, there are also ...

s from the period. Viewers may assume that the programme's title refers to ''The Lord of the Rings'' books, but Hardy chose "Middle Earth" because

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

frequently used the term to describe their world. He notes that

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

, an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon, used it, along with other Anglo-Saxon words, for the same reasons.

References

External links

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1066 - Channel 4
2009 British television series debuts 2009 British television series endings 2000s British documentary television series British military television series Channel 4 documentary series Television shows set in Sussex English-language television shows {{UK-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub